Original War

It does exactly what it says on the box...

Green is good...

If Altar Interactive are to be believed, the key to penetrating the
layer of detritus floating on the surface of the real-time strategy
genre is to splice in some role-playing elements; like experience
points, character development and a decent story. The aptly named
Original War sets itself up in Siberia, where a time travel device
has been uncovered that sends anything it comes into contact with
two million years into the past.
The machine is powered by Siberite, a rare element discovered only
in the neighbouring area of Russia. The Russian government isn't
happy about all this, and doesn't like the idea of Americans
exploiting their resources. In an inventive twist, it becomes your
job to hop two million years into the past and excavate Siberite
deposits, leaving them neatly stacked in Alaska, which was of
course just around the corner in those days.
It gets better, and the game is delightfully non-linear,
encouraging you to write your own ticket. The difficulty of future
missions and the choices to be made in them depend on your actions
in the present, and there are plenty of different ways to complete
the various missions, with the story traced in the sand by some
hammy voice acting and amusing characters in your unit.

Nurtured

Something fishy's going on

Real time strategy games aren't generally known for the roving
nature of their missions, but Original War is all about keeping on
the move, directing units according to your orders (which may
conflict with one another, requiring a bit of planning on your
part). There's no base unit, no tank-rushing, no boring
build-rush-build-rush cycle and all the other things that plagued
the likes of Red Alert. In fact you can't actually mass-produce
anything, least of all troops. Instead you have to put up with your
pre-determined units.
Although it shies away from a lot of real-time strategy traditions
the fog of war still exists, but you need to be careful how you
deal with it. The usual trick of dispatching a jeep out into the
black is unrealistic here; it would just end up getting shot to
pieces by the first patrol it meets and leaving you none the wiser.
The trick is to marshal your efforts conservatively. Space your
troops out, but never abandon them, and don't leave people on their
own.
Before you set off into the unknown though, troops have to be
trained as a soldier, a mechanic, an engineer or a scientist. Many
of these skills will be required regularly, and like role-playing
game characters your men develop experience in their work, and
become more and more valuable as they work or fight. At the
conclusion of each mission you can upgrade the attributes of the
various troops in your unit and train them in new disciplines. For
example, as your mechanics peak in prowess you can teach them to
drive a tank. Vehicles are pretty powerful on the whole, and
virtually every one can be customized to improve its weaponry,
speed, power source, chassis and more. You can also opt to change
your men's discipline mid-mission - quite useful if you're under
attack and your scientists are loitering near the armoury…

More good

Whomp!

As you can probably tell, Original War's biggest virtue is that it
tries to endear you to your units. It doesn't give you a pack of
disposable troops and a wad of cash to reinforce them over and
over, but instead offers you a number of men with different skills
and asks you to manipulate them.
When you take the level of customization and non-linearity into
account, you've got the prospect of a pretty exciting strategy
romp. Structures are rare but don't fall easily, troops and
vehicles are often extremely individual, and I haven't played a
single level of the game involving a group of tanks speeding
furiously into the enemy stronghold with a minute gone. It's ..
original.
Obviously all this pleasure has to come at a price though, and
Original War is marred by a number of small problems. I haven't
mentioned the visuals up to now, because by and large they are
neither remarkable or terrible, but there are gaps. For instance,
troops don't run. I'm sure their combat gear is probably quite
heavy, but why not have them throw it down and shed a number of
experience points if a tank is bearing down on them, instead of
walking very, very slowly in the opposite direction.

Finishing Touches

I'll have a couple of them, then

Another problem is the artificial intelligence. I know you're
groaning at the thought of yet another strategy game with dodgy AI,
but there's no escaping it. For the most part there's nothing to
worry about and the troops all wander around and help one another
out, but in the thick of battle there seem to be invisible
range-limiters at work, with troops ignoring the warning signs of
fallen comrades and standing around catching their breath for a few
seconds before hot-footing it towards the nearest tank moments
later armed only with a bayonet. A little common sense might have
been useful. Lassoing troops away from danger should be the least
of your worries when you're under attack.
Of course, you might not expect this sort of thing from the
average real-time strategy game, but Original War is a game that
encourages thought and stimulates the grey matter from time to
time. The troops natter away with one another, complaining about
the weather and hard going, and the stereotypical love-of-war
character who spurs them on sounds like a mixture of virtually
every Arnold Schwarzenegger character you have ever seen. This
isn't a game that should suffer from dumb-soldier syndrome.
Ultimately though, it would be unfair to neglect Original War
because of these minor niggles. Okay, so the voice acting is a bit
daft and the artificial intelligence has 'issues', but there is so
much here that deserves to be enjoyed. For crying out loud, it's a
real time strategy game that innovates. Open ye wallet, sir, and
avail yourself of £30. You won't regret it.